


The Cave

by MissChrisDaae



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Not Canon Compliant - Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-23 13:12:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13788465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissChrisDaae/pseuds/MissChrisDaae
Summary: Past the reflection of herself, there is another face.Because prequel lovers need more of a bone than 'a Jedi trained Darth Vader,' Rian.





	The Cave

That  _can't_ be all there is.

She stares at her own face, even as she feels the Dark Side swirling around her. This  _can't_ be all there is. She presses on the strange glassy surface, and it ripples. And now, past the reflection of herself, there is another face.

He is a little taller than her, with dark blond hair and a scar over one eye, and his features look slightly familiar. She knows his cheekbones from somewhere. And his eyes are a sad, stormy blue that belongs to...

" _Luke_?" The man shakes his head. "Who are you?"

"I'm what everyone's forgotten," he answers sadly, holding out a hand covered in a leather glove to press against hers. "It's alright, Rey, I'm not going to hurt you."

"Why should I believe you?" There's a dark shape swirling around him, something black and ominous that makes her shudder. "Tell me the truth,  _who are you_?"

"Anakin Skywalker." And for a moment, the dark shape covers him, he looks like Kylo Ren, but far more menacing and dangerous than Ren could ever be. Rey pulls back without even thinking. "No, please... Rey, please." And he looks so heartbroken, so devastated that she can't help feeling horrible for it.

"I'm sorry," she whispers.

"Not as sorry as I am," he says.

"Why am I seeing you?" she demands. "I didn't come here looking for you, why are you here?"

"Luke didn't teach you the full lesson," he says. "The real legend that failed was me."

"You?" she repeats.

"I was supposed to be the Chosen One. The Hero with No Fear. And I let the galaxy burn all because I couldn't bear to live without the woman I loved."

Rey blinks and frowns. Luke hadn't mentioned that. It makes sense, two people are needed to make babies, but at the same time, it is so  _odd_ to think of Darth Vader _in love_ with someone. "I don't understand," she says finally.

"For people like us, dreams are never just dreams," Anakin explains softly. "I dreamed of my mother's death and I was too late to save her. A whole village of Tusken Raiders paid the price for that. So when the dreams came for Padmé, for my wife and our baby..." Even though it shouldn't be possible, he chokes on his words. "The Dark Side preys on desperation. It takes what is good about us and corrupts it. Darth Sidious took my love for my family and used it to make me a monster. And I let him because I foolishly thought it was the only way to save them." The phantom hand trembles on the glass. "I failed everyone. And my children are still paying the price for it."

 Rey says nothing. What _can_ she say? Somehow the words that fall from her lips are, "then how do I stop Kylo?"

The shadow flickers over Anakin again,  _Darth Vader's_ shadow. "If I knew how to save my grandson, I would have done it long ago," he whispers. "I have tried, ever since the day he was lost, but he won't hear me. He doesn't want to."

Rey swallows, taking a step closer. "I want to," she tells him, her voice trembling as she presses her hand against his. "Luke won't teach me, he says the Jedi need to end. Teach me how I make them better, how I stop Kylo and save everyone."

"I can't teach you." Her face falls and she starts to pull away but he draws closer, his shape becoming clearer through the distortions and fog of the mirror. "But I can show you what I know."

 The memories overwhelm her like a sandstorm, a thick blanket where nothing else could be seen.

_... Are you an angel...  You brought him here to kill me...  I'm here, Mom, you're safe...  I thought we had decided not to fall in love... We couldn't just leave him there... YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE... Father... I find your lack of faith disturbing... Obi-Wan is here. The Force is with him... You're reckless, little one... You were right about me..._

Faces, battles, all manner of unfamiliar images pass by, an entire life to be experienced, in all its joy and pain, and Rey sinks to her knees as the last thing to flash before her eyes is a woman with Luke's face and Leia's kind, sad eyes, and her lips part to whisper  _Ani..._

"All of that," she whispers hoarsely, looking up at Anakin's ghost. "I can't believe it."

"Most people don't want to," Anakin sighs, sinking down so that he's sitting beside her. "It's easier if I'm just the monster. And maybe I deserve to be for everything I did to hurt my family and this galaxy."

"I don't understand what I'm supposed to do," she pointed out. "Even with everything you showed me, that's _your_ life. I'm still a nobody, I got lucky on the Base—"

"Don't say that," Anakin interrupts her. "Fine, you don't know who your parents are, but that does not make you nobody."

"But—"

"There are times when I would have given  _anything_ to be nobody. Having a destiny, a legacy, that's a worse burden. Being nobody means you get to decide what your destiny is, who you'll be. It's why everyone wants to be Luke Skywalker and not Anakin."

She thinks about the lightsaber. About everything that it did, no matter who was holding it, Anakin, Luke, Finn... her. "But what if being  _me_ isn't enough?"

"I can't help you with that, Rey. That's something you have to find for yourself." Anakin starts to step back, to fade away. 

"No, please! Don't go!" she scrambles closer, trying to reach through the barrier. " _Please_."

"It's alright, Rey," he promises. "You are  _never_ really alone."


End file.
